When you decide to adopt a child, you have to decide what type of adoption you want to engage in, an open or closed adoption. This is a very important decision because it is not only going to impact your life, but it is going to impact your child's life as well. When you choose an open adoption, your child's birth parents are able to stay informed about what is happening in your child's life and is able to possibly see and have a life-long relationship with your child. Here are two ways choosing an open adoption can enhance your child's life.
#1 Additional Relationships
Your child will have additional relationships with adults who love them. They will grow up knowing that you and your spouse love them very much and would do anything for them. They also get to grow up knowing their birth parents, and knowing that the decisions their birth parents made to have someone else raise them was made out of love. Your child will never have to worry or wonder about why their birth parents chose to let you adopt them or if their birth parents care about them, love them, or wonder about them. Instead, your child will have a healthy personal relationship with their birth parents.
Depending on the depth of your open adoption, your child may also grow up with numerous aunts, uncles, and grandparents from your family and from their birth family. This will just expand the circle of people who love and care for your child and will expand the circle of support they have as they grow up.
#2 Personal History
Another way that choosing an open adoption will enhance your child's life is they will have a greater sense of their own personal history. Many children who are adopted often have a sense of wonder and curiosity about the family that gave them up for adoption. They wonder who those people were, where they came from, and where they are now. When you choose an open adoption, your child does not have to day dream about these questions. Instead, they can ask their birth parents and hear stories about their grandparents and great-grandparents to get a deeper sense of their personal history.
Your child will also get to know the history of the family that adopted them and made them a part of their family. Your child will have the unique chance to have two different personal histories and lineages that they will be able to learn about.
Think carefully about if you want to go with a closed or open adoption; remember that an open adoption can expand the circle of people who love your child and can allow your child to more fully understand their story and their history for their whole lives. Discuss with your attorney how to set up an open adoption that will benefit and protect your child. An attorney like Baudler, Maus, Forman, Kritzer & Wagner, LLP can answer your questions and guide you in the decision.
Share28 September 2016
The laws governing child custody and guardianship can be confusing. As a family attorney, I have helped many clients gain legal guardianship over a foster child or a relative's child. Getting legal guardianship of a child you are caring for is important because you need to be able to make decisions about that child's education, health care and other matters. This blog will help you navigate the world of legal guardianship and show you how to take steps to get guardianship over a child whether the child's parents are cooperative or not. Legal guardianship does matter even if a child is not going to be adopted. I hope to help people find the way to get this done.
